Streaking Eels to the four

SHARKS halfback Brett Kimmorley last night said Parramatta was capable of winning the premiership after it delivered a near fatal blow to the Sharks' finals hopes.

In crisis mid-season following the departure of coach Brian Smith, the Eels powered to their eighth consecutive victory to sound an ominous warning to their premiership rivals.

The victory temporarily propelled Parramatta into the top four - and they will stay there if the Dragons and Brisbane lose today to the Bulldogs and Melbourne, respectively.

While Kimmorley lamented the Sharks' seventh straight loss, the premiership-winning playmaker believes the rejuvenated Eels are well placed to win their first title since 1986.

"They are a chance. They will be up near the top four," said Kimmorley, who piloted Melbourne Storm to the 1999 premiership.

"They scored tries tonight off a few 50-50 things and in the big games sometimes the bounce doesn't go your way.

"But they are up there now. Jason Taylor (Eels coach) has got them playing enjoyable and exciting footy."

Down 12-8 at half-time, the Eels powered home with a clinical second half, scoring five tries to stun the Sharks.

Since replacing Smith in round 11, Taylor has won nine of 12 games and steered the Eels to their longest winning streak since their grand final year in 2001. There is now a palpable confidence at Parramatta, but Taylor is wisely tempering the emotion.

"We want to keep doing it because we can work our way further up the ladder," Taylor said.

"Our goal was to make the eight, even though we didn't talk about it.

"I said at the start I didn't care if we didn't make the eight, but once we got it going, we wanted to get ourselves in the eight.

"I just said to the boys that it was the most pleasing win we've had in the past couple of months, because at halftime we were up against it. They (Cronulla) were playing for their season.

"We knew it would be tough, we just wanted to concentrate, but we got it going after halftime."

While the Parramatta juggernaut continues, the Sharks' season is in tatters. Their latest capitulation means they must win their final three matches, against Penrith (h), the Dragons (a) and Canberra (h), to have any hope of making the finals.

"I told the guys it becomes a mathematical situation," coach Stuart Raper said.

"We can't look back at what's happened, we can't change those results. We need to be positive about the way we want to play and go all out and see what happens.

"I'm proud of these guys because it's hard to front up when you put in the effort you do and keep losing.

"The players are hurting as much as anyone, I see what they go through. We played well in the first half but at the end of the day we're just not winning games."

The only downside for the Eels was a back injury to Eric Grothe, but he should be right to play the Roosters next week.

SHARKS 14 (B Pomeroy D Simmons tries; L Covell 3 goals)

PARRAMATTA 34 (L Burt 2 J Hayne W McKinnon G Morrison M Riddell tries; L Burt 5 goals)

Referee: T Archer
Crowd: 12,830 at Toyota Park.